Jim is the founder of Boston-based Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation and the CEO and chairman of its holding company. He received a BA degree with Highest Honors and a Ph.D. in Economics, both from Harvard.  He began his career as a Lecturer in Economics at Harvard, teaching the economics of financial markets.  He served as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance from 1975 to 1979 and then as Chairman and Commissioner of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission until 1983. He then founded the Plymouth Rock Company. Stone is also a co-founder of Lindsay Goldberg, a New York-based private equity investment firm. He was on the Board of The Boston Globe Newspaper Corporation and was vice chairman of Global Post, a web-based international news service. Jim chairs the Academic Affairs and Commercial Relations Committees of the Board of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a genetics and cancer research institute. He is the Chairman Emeritus of Management Sciences for Health, a large international humanitarian health infrastructure provider. He is a fellow and a member of the Finance Committee of the American Academy of Arts and Science, and a director of ProPublica. Jim is the author of "Five Easy Theses: Commonsense Solutions to America's Greatest Economic Challenges" (May 2016), a New York Times Bestseller and a Bloomberg Best Books of 2016 selection. He has authored articles on insurance, finance, and economics. He is married and the father of two children.